Laughter
by Mandarax
Summary: Sam can’t stop laughing and Jack wants to know why.


Laughter by Mandarax

Rated T

Summary - Sam can't stop laughing and Jack wants to know why.

Disclaimer – Sure.

A/N – After a few weeks off, I'm back! I was in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, experiencing a new life and getting plenty of story ideas. Hope you like this short "I'm Ba-ack" story.

**

She was laughing at him.

Sitting there and laughing at him.

Or maybe it was with him. He never could tell the difference.

Whatever it was, she was laughing and he was pretty sure that could not be a good thing, given the situation they were in.

"Sam?"

She went on laughing. She didn't even look at him. He figured she must not have heard him, she was laughing so hard.

She was not laughing with him, he decided. How could she be when he had no idea what she was laughing about?

He tried again. "Samantha?"

That always used to work on her. He saved the full name calling for special occasions. He could count the number of times he'd used it on one hand.

So could she, he knew.

She looked at him this time. Looked and smiled. And then went on laughing.

He mentally reviewed their situation in his head. Whatever it was, it wasn't funny. Nothing about this was funny.

He changed tactics again. "Carter!"

Her eyes met his and she stopped laughing for a mini-second. "Yes sir?" she said with a smile that turned into fits of giggles as soon as the words were uttered. And the giggles only got harder and higher-pitched. At least she had the decency to answer her CO when he called her name.

He sighed. "What's so funny?"

This time she turned her whole body towards him, not just her head. "It's just a funny situation," she answered through her giggles.

It wasn't. He'd already decided that. "How so?"

"This," she indicated to their location with her hand between giggles, "it's just…"

"Funny?" he supplied.

He rolled his eyes when she nodded her head, still laughing.

"How?"

She bit her lip to keep from laughing as she looked up at him. "It's just that Teal'c and Daniel are outside fishing in a fish-less pond, waiting for us to bring lunch out." She was giggling again.

Yeah, well, he could see the humor in that. But you don't start laughing for 15 straight minutes without being able to say a word and hardly even breathe because they'd let Teal'c and Daniel starve.

She grabbed his hand to hold herself still. "And we're finally on a break. A real one. Taking time off. Out of the SGC."

"I know this is a new concept for you, Carter, but we've taken time off before. Most of us don't find our labs that entertaining…" He couldn't see what was laugh-worthy in actually going off-base once in a while.

"And you're leaving, and so are we as a matter of a fact. SG1's disbanding."

If there was anything in this whole story that was not funny, it was this – the end of SG-1 as they knew it. He raised an eyebrow.

"And the Goa'uld are defeated."

She was cracking. She was finally losing it. They would have to take her to an institute pretty soon. The Goa'uld losing was everything they'd worked for the past eight years. But it was still not funny.

"And we're in your infamous cabin."

Infamous? Really? Why?

Oh. He knew why.

Another eyebrow joined the first one.

"And we've never done this before."

He watched as she pulled the sheet she was holding around her chest higher, a subconscious reaction, and a smile began tugging at the corner of his lips. He was thinking he might be starting to understand her giggles.

"And you called me Carter."

When she fell face down onto the mattress he realized she had been holding the giggles back so she can talk. Except that she could hardly talk through the giggles before. Damn, the woman could laugh. She was shaking on the mattress next to him.

And Yes. Definitely laughing at him.

"I did not!"

She'd turned on her side so she can look at him. She was holding her stomach. There were tears of laughter sliding down her face. "Yes, you did," she mastered through fits of giggles.

He stared at her, reviewing the events of the past hour in his head. He could not, in fact, be 100 percent certain he hadn't called out Carter while making love to her.

"It's an old fantasy," he admitted slowly.

She stopped laughing. A sweet smile was on her lips now as she raised herself up and sidled closer to him.

"One of mine too."

He wrapped his arms around her and let their combined weight pull him down so that she was half lying across his chest.

He felt her relax against him.

"Hmmm… I could get used to this," she whispered against his chest.

He smiled. At least she stopped laughing at him.

"I bet Daniel's still waiting for us to bring lunch out," she grinned against his chest but made no move to get up.

And then he could feel her starting to shake with laughter against him. His grip on her tightened as he too started laughing.

Yes, Teal'c and Daniel were outside fishing in a fish-less pond.

And yes, they were all leaving – going their separate ways. But now he and Sam could be together in a way they never could before.

And yes, they were at the infamous cabin, finally relaxing like he wanted her to relax all those years ago when he first suggested they take some time off together, even if back then it meant they couldn't do what they were doing right that moment, or what they were doing an hour earlier.

And yes, they've never done this – made love – before. But this is just the first time out of many, many times more.

And yes, he may have called her Carter.

"I'm pretty sure Daniel's figured out we're not getting lunch," he said.

He could feel her body shake harder against his as peals of laughter ripped through her once more.

And Jack O'Neill knew exactly then that she wasn't laughing at him. This time she was laughing with him.


End file.
